Criminal case something new for Skilling lawyer

JOHN C. ROPER, Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Published
6:30 am CST, Saturday, January 28, 2006

When defense attorney Daniel Petrocelli steps into the courtroom to defend Jeff Skilling in arguably the highest-profile corporate fraud trial ever, it will be the first time he has tried a criminal case.

Defending the former Enron Corp. CEO doesn't appear to shake Petrocelli, who is based in Los Angeles and specializes in civil trials.

His bread and butter has been cases tied to the entertainment industry. He recently represented Walt Disney Co. and won a case over hundreds of millions of dollars in merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh.

And then there's O.J. Simpson, the former football phenom whose trial on murder charges created a sensation.

Petrocelli burst into the public eye, and onto the cover of Time magazine, when he won the Simpson civil trial representing the family of Ron Goldman, a young waiter who was slain along with Simpson's wife, Nicole. Simpson was earlier acquitted of murder in a criminal court.

For the affable Petrocelli, there are no remarkable differences between civil and criminal trials. He even draws parallels between the Simpson case and the trial facing Skilling, saying both have mountains of highly complex evidence.

She said Petrocelli's eye for detail and his diligent preparation are what makes him "an extremely skilled trial lawyer" with a smooth courtroom presence.

"He will study every document. He is not going to be disorganized, and you're not going to see him flustered in front of the jury," she said.

Skilling brings another challenge.

"He has a huge public relations problem here that he didn't have in Simpson," she said. "When he went into Simpson everybody was riding the wave with him because everything was scandalized — most people thought Simpson had gotten away with murder."

This time around Petrocelli does not have a vocal group of supporters championing his client's cause.

His defense will be to "smash the myths," Petrocelli said. "Jeff Skilling is not a demon; he's a man who used to work for Enron."

He is expected to argue that although there were bad deals, Skilling wasn't aware of them. By and large, the argument will go, the company's deals were legitimate, and Enron's implosion was caused by a "run on the bank."

Petrocelli won't discuss his fees, but before the government froze $66 million of Skilling's assets, the former Enron executive supplied his high-powered legal team with a $23 million war chest.

Petrocelli said he didn't follow the Simpson criminal trial closely and knew little about it when he was hired by the Goldmans. For the Enron case, he knew even less. "When the case came to me, I didn't know who Jeff Skilling was," Petrocelli said.

But once Petrocelli gets involved, he becomes consumed. He became so wrapped up in the Simpson case that he forgot to pay his bills, leaving his family without electricity.

He has a son and daughter in college and a 3-year-old daughter and 6-month-old son at home with his wife, Allison, who also is an attorney.

While his wife and their youngest children will live in a luxury hotel here during the trial, the lights probably will be on when they return to their Los Angeles home. "I have somebody paying my bills now," Petrocelli said with a laugh.